The .cn registry keeps making drastic decisions. Yesterday, January 6th 2010, the registry has decided they’ll no longer accept new .cn registrations from foreign registrars. Existing registrations can still easily be extended but new registrations are no longer possible.
The reason for this drastic decision, are the difficulties that come up with new registrations. A few weeks ago we already posted an article about the fact that the. cn registry has tightened its policy of new registrations considerably. Only companies could register a new .cn name and paperwork was required. This apparently leads to unexpected difficulties for registration of foreign registrars.
The Chinese registry also told that this ‘registration stop’ for foreign registrars is only temporary. When these ‘stop’ will be lifted, is not known. The registry is now looking for methods with which they can verify the required paperwork for new registrations from abroad.
There are already 2 new rules introduced to control the paperwork easier.
1) Companies in China may only register their .cn domain names via a registrar based in China.
2) If a foreign firm widh to register a .cn name, such registration must be accompanied by a Chinese or English copy of an extract for the Chamber of Commerce. If this extract can not be delivered in Chinese or English by the competent authority, it must be translated by a sworn translator. Several countries (including Belgium) don’t give an original English extract. So we’ll have to wait and see how strict the rules will be interpreted in practice to know for sure how much trouble these additional rules will cause.